o Domain: Eukarya
o Kingdom: Animalia
o Phylum: Arthropoda
o Class: Insecta
o Order: Diptera
o Family: Culicidae
o Mosquitos
o Midges
o Sand flies
o Blowflies
o House fly
o Anophelinae and Culicinae
o The anopheles are the mosquitos that are clinically important
o These are the mosquito species that are everything other than the anopheles, such as aedes and culex
o A forward projecting proboscis (mouthpart)
o Scales on the thorax, legs, and abdomen, wing veins
o Fringes of scales on hind margin of the wings
o Yes, because of the scales, we can tell that this is a mosquito
o No, immature mosquitos live in aquatic habitats, such as fresh, brackish, sea water, clean and polluted water. Essentially any freshwater habitat that the mosquito can exploit, whether it is man-made or natural
o All immature stages are aquatic
o Brackish water has a slightly higher salinity than freshwater, but not enough to be considered saltwater
o Mosquitos are found everywhere, tropical, arctic, high and low elevation
o There are just a few islands and the Antarctic where you will not find mosquitos
o Complete metamorphosis (holometabolous)
4
o Mosquitos can undergo dormancy, or repressed reproduction, or growth suspension to increase survival
o For example, in the winter, when it is cold, the mosquitos will hibernate
o Eggs
o Larvae
o Pupae
o Adult
o Female mosquitos will lay between 30 to 300 eggs depending on the species
o Eggs are usually brown or black and less than a mm long
o Both the anopheles and the aedes will individually lay their eggs, but the anopheles will lay their eggs in water where the eggs may drift and attach to each other. Since the eggs of the anopheles need to float, the eggs will have a float. Conversely, the aedes will lay their eggs above the water-line with no float.
o The culex is different because the eggs are laid in a raft that floats on top of the water, but they also do not have a float
o This is an anopheles mosquito egg. Notice how the eggs are laid individually with a float. Because there is a float and no raft, we can deduce that it is not a culex. The eggs are in the water indicating that this is not an aedes egg
o These eggs are not laid individually like the anopheles. Also, these are in the water unlike the eggs of the aedes. Therefore, these are culex eggs.
o The biggest clue is that these are individual eggs laid above the water, meaning that these are aedes eggs
o The amount of food it takes up. Less food means longer development
o The head is weakly sclerotized and is dorsoventrally flattened with palatal brushes used for food filtration
o Sclerotized is similar to the word sclerotium, where the head is slightly hardened
o The thorax is divided into three segments that look like a single globular structure with notable setae meaning bristles or hairlike structures
o The abdomen consists of nine apparent segment